Academic Culture Shock

Listen to this song while you read this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmZexg8sxyk
(copy and paste, Mom)

A True Story
For a few weeks my Anthropology teacher was giving out warnings to our class. "I noticed that many of you are not turning in your literary summaries. Don't forget they are a third of your grade". I of course didn't pay much attention to these warnings. I had turned all my papers in on time. Doing our reading and writing these weekly summaries took me about three hours every Sunday evening to complete, if not longer. It was work for me to read these sometimes very long and wordy papers and then write a grammatically correct paper to explain them, but I happily did this weekly task, grateful for an academic routine and a way to improve my Portuguese.

On the very last day of this class, the professor brought up that fact that many people did not turn in enough of the summaries and that a certain boy, the most outspoken in this class, had not turned in even one. Another more-outspoken-than-average boy spoke up, "We didn't like the task. Our articles should have been about critiquing the literature, not summarizing it." Another girl chimed in, "Yes, and also sometimes I didn't understand certain aspects of the article until after discussing it in class. Our papers should have been due in the class after discussions". While all these indolent students complained, I tried to understand the dynamics of the whole situation. Why are they telling her this now? I thought to myself. Maybe they have reason but why didn't they say anything before?

Instead of reprimanding the students for their late complaints and lack of work, the professor began defending herself. "I know, you all are students of a different caliber" she said. "I know you would have done the readings without having done the assignments, but most students aren't like you" she spoke, misguidedly stroking our ego, "and that's why I made this assignment, I didn't know". I was getting uncomfortable. I and the rest of the thirty students in Anthropology knew damn well that if she hadn't made that assignment none of us would have done the majority of the long, lackluster readings. Furthermore I knew those students, who very shamelessly BS-ed during the classroom discussions and did few - zero of the assignments did NOT read the assigned literature.

And then it happened. "For those of you who did not do the summaries, it will not hurt your grade", the professor said. My mouth dropped. For those of you who did do the summaries, your grade with take said work into consideration. They weren't being reprimanded. They won. They won for not doing their work. I worked long and hard and am symbolically being slapped across the face for doing so.

I was lifted up into a tornado of cultural dilemma. It's not my place to complain. I am foreign. This doesn't make sense to me because I am not of this culture. I thought, trying calm myself. But how can this learning/teaching strategy be right anywhere? What are those students learning? I said nothing. No one spoke out against her decision. The students who won looked as if they received something they deserved. Content with their charbroiled justice.

I went home and complained. My host sister scolded me for not saying something then and there. But what would I have said? "NO, you are doing everything wrong." That is what I would have wanted to say. I would have complained about everything from her lack of leading class discussions and letting Bozo 1 and Bozo 2 completely takeover with unrelated subjects on which they had things to say, to the way it took her 8 weeks to grade our midterm exams. Where would I have started? And do I even have a right to complain about something that is natural to a culture? It's a fine line, that I step on often. One day I am going to step on someone's fine tail and get the crap bitten out of me. What I mean is, when you know that a critique is not going to be received well (in that it will not be received), should you still give it? "Yes! stand up for what you believe in!". "No! You shouldn't try to force your culture on others!"

Sigh...What would you have done?


Days until my flight:
10